D-Link Wireless Dual Band AC1200 Mbps USB Wi-Fi Network Adapter (DWA-182)

Pros: The speed was pretty much the same as a wired connection if not slightly better. Speeds were literally 10 times faster (read other thoughts). The USB extension cradle is nice, and it was easy to download the latest drivers. The software isn't obtrusive and file transfer was flawless. The build quality is good, high quality plastic. Brushed aluminum would be better though. Works well with older routers (great if you're having connectivity problems!). It received a strong signal from every part of my house except for the basement, where I get just one bar but still a hefty 50 mbps.

Cons: The size is slightly larger than some lesser performing wifi adapters, but that's a compromise I'm willing to make for the newest 802.11ac connectivity. No Linux support.

Overall Review: This adapter's speeds when paired with the D-Link Wireless AC1750 Dual Band router were truly mind-boggling. Compared to my old setup with a Motorola surfer router and my Lenovo Y410P's built-in wi-fi adapter, speeds were quite literally 10 times as fast. I'd always wondered why I could never make use of my cable provider's advertised "50 down, 25 up," and now I know why. Thank you, D-Link, thank you.

Pros: D-Link is a seasoned player in the networking market. No worries about the next big tech shakeup. Cradle prevents damage when in use and provides great flexibility for positioning. 5ghz band support means no interference with 2.4 wireless phones WPS support for the old folks who can't remember an 8 digit random number for more then 5 seconds

Cons: Software installer was a problem on my Levono running windows 7. The auto run failed, so I had to find the installer on my own. No biggie for me, but I'm nutso when it comes to software QA. Windows 8 driver CD included, I would have NEVER sent out a CD with a mailing label indicating "Windows 8". Most unprofessional in execution but the thought was excellent. (-.5) When I was in software development, one of our first purchases was a cd duplicator with a built in quality printer. First impressions are everything, as you can tell by the packaging we see. This is a power hungry device. I found when running on battery power my laptop ran about half as long as I normally do with the built in G wireless(-.5) Easy to lose the USB connection cover as there was no facility on the dongle or cradle to store it. My cat picked it up and took it to his stash of "things"

Overall Review: now I can stream HTDV from my ceton tv card without the slightest jitter while I'm talking on the phone. In this regard a total win while I'm walking the treadmill during my morning phone call to mom. If you want more speed and far less interference with all other devices 5ghz is the way to go. In that regard the DWA-182 is a huge win at a great price. This was a Newegg Eggxpert review. The product was provided to produce this review.

Pros: I have to start of by saying I really love these D-Link products, I have had lot of experience testing and evaluating networking products and D-Link is always the brand I would prefer over many others. The D-Link Wireless AC12000 Dual Band USB Adapter (DWA-182) is Truly Amazing, I finally found a Wireless Adapter that achieved the max speed of my Network Attached Storage Drives at a healthy 80Mbps and that is the very same speeds achieved with a wired connection.The setup process was very easy, only having to downloading the latest driver/utility from the D-Link website. The Driver included a very basic Utility, maybe not really needed in my opion, as I really don't like extra programs installed on my systems. I do like the included USB Extension Cradle, as it is of good quality. The price point is spot on, and in my opinion almost being on the side of a "Good Deal".

Cons: I have absolutely no bad things to say about this device, you are getting a Dual Band USB Adapter with extraordinary transfer speeds for a great price.

Overall Review: I have absolutely no bad things to say about this device, you are getting a Dual Band USB Adapter with extraordinary transfer speeds for a great price, like I've said this is the fastest Wireless Dual Band USB Adapter I have used, I wish I found the D-Link Wireless AC12000 Dual Band USB Adapter (DWA-182) before I ran 50ft. of Cat-5 through my home. The range was very good as well as it had no problems reaching every corner of a 2000sqft. home. I really am Truly Amazed.

Pros: - Solid construction - Cooling vents on the side - Comfortable grip for removing/sticking in - Reaches advertised speeds - Included USB extension

Cons: - Bulky body makes it hard to use without the extension - WPS button is at the front of the unit, so if it is plugged in by its self it is difficult to press - Drivers not integrated on device, requires CD

Overall Review: I had no problems at all with the Adapter aside from the minor issues I discussed in the cons. It worked, and worked well, with no random disconnects or driver issues. I used it exclusively in Windows 7 on a variety of devices, so I can't comment on compatibility with Linux or other versions of windows. I tried both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 slots and didn't really notice any differences in performance speeds. Copying between my two test computers seemed about consistent regardless, both devices had 7200 RPM wd blacks and usually went around 20-30MBs. I did notice that it seemed to have trouble copying many smaller files that I didn't have issues on when copying over ethernet. This may just be an issue with WiFi file transfers in general as I have seen it before. I always find that USB wifi seems like a temporary fix for a situation that you don't have ethernet in the area yet/a laptop's internet wifi is broken/you haven't installed a wifi pci card/etc. In this role, the adapter works great. I was easily able to access any wireless network I tried it on from a variety of router manufacturers. With a DLink DIR-868L router I had great performance especially and took full advantage of the AC connection. That being said, I highly recommend this unit if you need a USB wifi adapter and it is within your price range. If your router only supports N (or even G), then you probably won't find this adapter much of a benefit over one that operates on that band specifically. If there is any room for improvement, I would like to see a slimmer body that can actually be plugged in next to another device without the use of the extension cable, and definitely integrated drivers.

Pros: Installation was smooth and simple. The software on the included CD prompted me to connect the adapter, and it was connected and working shortly afterward. I would have no reservations whatsoever about giving this to a non-technical user. The D-Link software is unobtrusive with a tray icon showing the signal strength. I transferred about 100 GB over the 5 GHz band and there were no hiccups, lags, or other signs of instability through several cycles of power-on/power-off and suspend/wake-up. See below for one caveat, however. I used this for 3 days and left it on for two overnight tests and found it to be completely stable. I observed 67 Mbps on the 5 GHz band reading a 2 GB file. This is less than the indicated connection speed would suggest, but faster than any other wireless connection I've used. The included extension cable and stand is a nice touch, especially for desktop use. The adapter gets just a little warm to the touch, not at all hot.

Cons: This adapter is much larger than other USB wifi adapters I've used, particularly compared to the svelte 802.11 n/g/b adapters on the market now. The case is about the size of a cigarette lighter. It's large enough that I found myself worried about breaking it off when using it directly inserted into the back of my laptop. The adapter rattles a bit inside the plastic case, which makes it feel cheap. I was ready to give this adapter 5 stars until I came across a problem which is admittedly a corner case, but the failure is repeatable and unpleasant. If I suspend (sleep) my laptop with the adapter connected, then wake up the computer without the adapter, the computer wakes up into an unusable state. In this state there is a permanent hourglass mouse pointer, no response to ctrl-shift-esc or ctrl-alt-del, and it won't complete the shutdown process – it requires a hard power-off (holding down the power button for several seconds). After a reboot, everything is fine, with or without the adapter. As mentioned above, I tested several cycles of power-on/power-off and suspend/wake-up, and everything worked fine, provided that I did not suspend with the adapter and wake-up without it.

Overall Review: As many have mentioned, it's USB 2.0 which transfers at a maximum 480 Mbps. However, even with a USB 3.0 adapter I wouldn't expect to see actual wifi transfer rates higher than that.

Pros: Excellent upgrade over previous D-Link Adaptors. I have a few DWA-130/135 cards in circulation around my house. Dual Band (2.4/5ghz) Support with WPS. Full Wireless N and AC speeds can only be attained through USB 3.0 at short range. I maxed out around 750-800mbps throughput. Product packaging included two driver discs (OEM and Win8) and an extension cable/dock for the adaptor. Updated drivers can be found through D-Link's website (Recommended) Built-in Antenna is Omnidirectional. Performance will be directly proportional with distance.

Cons: No Linux support, yet. Product puts out a significant amount of heat. Product feels cheap, plastic can break easily. DO NOT let the heat warp the adaptor, keep ventilated. Included software malfunctions without update from manufacture.

Pros: This wireless adapter performed comparably to other 802.11AC wireless adapters I’ve tested. 802.11AC is a relatively new technology still, and there are bound to be some bumps in the road. The device itself is very sleek, and although a bit larger than a flash drive, it is an acceptable size and does not obstruct neighboring USB ports on my laptop. The USB extension cradle it comes with is fantastic for desktop use. It allows the adapter to stand up, sticking up from the desk like an antenna. It also prevents any USB port blockage on your desktop computer, by allowing you to plug in a normal USB cable which runs to the cradle. The actual performance when in the same room is slightly better than 802.11N, but I was not able to get anywhere near the claimed 867 megabits per second data rate.

Cons: No Linux drivers! Like many tech people, I run Linux on most of my computers, and I was very disappointed to see that there is no Linux support for this adapter from D-Link yet. In any kind of production environment, lack of Linux support is a deal breaker for me. Linux Mint didn’t even recognize this card, other than showing “D-Link” on LSUSB. In my previous testing with a competitor’s 802.11AC adapter (which had an external antenna, unlike this one) I got better signal strength. This adapter immediately loses negotiated speed when you put a single obstruction in the way. With my laptop on top of the desk, and the router under the desk, I was already down to 702 megabits per second negotiated speed. On that link, I was not able to successfully push more than 170 megabits per second. I had similar experiences with my other 802.11AC adapter, so it’s possible that my router is to blame for this speed disparity. Once I put a few walls in the way, my speed dropped to 175.5 megabits per second, and my signal strength down to 2 bars. This was with about 3 walls and a closet in the way of my 5GHz signal. My actual speeds at this point were just above 50 megabits per second. I live in a large rural home, with 2 stories and a basement. My basement receives no signal at all from the 5GHz radio with this adapter, but I can still pick up my 2.4GHz signal. Obviously, this would not be as fast, since the claimed data rate on 2.4GHz is only 300Mbps. This is a limitation of the wireless standards, not of this adapter.

Overall Review: I tested my connections with an Edimax WK-2078AC 802.11AC router. With a different router, or a non-802.11AC router, your experiences will vary. If you have an 802.11N router, this WiFi adapter will still work for you, but you will not be able to achieve the high 802.11AC speeds. I used iperf on Windows 7 on a ThinkPad W520 laptop to do this bandwidth testing. My iperf testing endpoint was a dual core Atom system sitting on a gigabit ethernet connection, which is capable of hardwired iperf speeds up to 900 megabits per second.

Pros: Environment: I reside in a 1 story 1600 sq ft home in a typical suburban neighborhood. My Wi-Fi router is a Netgear Dual Band 11ac R6200. Installation: Driver installation was seamless. I followed the instructions provided and my Win7 x64 systems (laptop and desktop) received the driver and the adapter came to life. Also, I really like the USB extender it comes with, might actually use it for other purposes. Function: When transferring a single large file (3.2GB .iso DVD disk image) I was able to obtain speeds of 25MB – 30MB per second. On average I was seeing 24MB per second. With 802.11n I was seeing an average transfer rate of 18MB per second. I was able to stream music on Spotify while watching an HD video on Netflix and browsing the internet. None of those actions seemed any different than my hard line connection.

Cons: Annoying blinking blue LED if it is within eye sight. Which is easily fixed with some electrical tape. A bit large and bulky for laptop use. Not sure where the 1.2Gbps claims come from. The most I got was 240Mbps.

Overall Review: Wireless 802.11ac is the future for Wi-Fi. In my opinion though, if you have a good 802.11n Wi-Fi environment you will only ever see a substantial improvement when moving large single files. In typical everyday use I doubt anyone could tell the difference between 802.11n and 802.11ac.